ABRAHAM: FATHER OF OUR FAITH
Key Scriptures: Genesis 12 23 A LOOK AT THE MAN The life of Abraham is a study in faithfulness, obedience, and sometimes blind trust. It s also the story of a God who keeps his covenant promises. Abram (later named Abraham) and his wife Sarai (later named Sarah) lived in Haran where Abraham was a prosperous livestock owner. By all accounts, he was comfortable.
But an order from the living God changed all Abram s life forever. This is what God said: Leave your country, your people and your father s household and go to the land I will show you. God did not mince his words. He didn t even ask Abraham to consider moving. He told him to go. And to make it even more of a challenge, God didn t specify Abraham s destination. He only said, Go. And then God made Abraham a promise. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.
It s hard to imagine how shocking this news was to Abraham. And when Sarah heard Abraham s report of what God had said, she must have been overwhelmed. Leave our home? Go on a journey to nowhere? Have children even though we are barren? But Sarah trusted Abraham, just as Abraham trusted God. They said good-bye to their families and, along with their nephew, Lot, their possessions, and a caravan of servants, they set out southwest toward Canaan, the area where Abraham s descendants would call home to this day.
Time and again, throughout his life, God tested Abraham s resolve to obey him. And, time and again, God reconfirmed his promise to Abraham a land, a nation, and a blessing. Abraham is the most revered of the patriarchs. His name and God s promise of a nation were even recalled as Mary accepted her call to be the mother of Jesus. God has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever even as he promised.
But Abraham s place in history is not only well established because of the millions who count themselves as his offspring. Nor is Abraham honored because he was a perfect man. He wasn t. Abraham is the most significant patriarch because of God s call and covenant with him and Abraham s remarkable courage to be obedient.
THE ULTIMATE TEST
One by one, Abraham took the pieces of wood he had cut, stacking them on his young son s back. Then he slipped his knife into his belt, took the torch from his servant, and began walking up the steep slope of the mountain just he and his boy. Then, almost as an afterthought, he turned and said to his servants as they prepared to follow, We will worship and then we will come back to you.
Abraham and Isaac walked along in silence. Since they had left on their journey three days before, Isaac could tell that something was troubling his father. The spontaneity and camaraderie that marked their relationship was gone. Conversation had seemed strained and wooden. Unknown to Isaac, the day before they left home, God had ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on one of the mountains. Abraham
Abraham had waited a lifetime for this son. Now God was asking the most terrible sacrifice a man could imagine, a sacrifice that seemed to contradict the promise God had made so many years before, to give him a son and heir, to make of him a nation uniquely blessed. Along the journey, Isaac hadn t had the courage to ask if anything was wrong. In fact, something told him that this awkward silence had something to do with him, so it was best left unexplored. He d learn soon enough.
Father, Isaac finally said as they made their way up the trail. Yes, my son. The fire and the wood are here but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Like spears, Isaac s words must have plunged themselves into Abraham, deepening his distress even panic but he wasn t going to let his son in on any notion of uncertainty. Mustering all the courage he could, Isaac s father spoke. God himself will provide.
When the man and his son reached the spot God had told Abraham about, they stopped. Propping the burning torch against a rock, he took the wood from Isaac s back and carefully laid it out over a heap of stones to form an altar. Neither of them spoke, but the emotion of the moment must have been overwhelming. God himself will provide. God himself will provide. God himself will provide. The cadence of this assurance repeated itself in Abraham s mind as he put the wood in place.
Pulling the thong from his sandal, Abraham nodded toward his only son. Silently and without resistance, the boy stepped forward. With the leather string, Abraham tied his son s hands together and lifted him onto the altar. Did God not promise? Abraham must have reviewed God s promise as he removed his knife from its sheath. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son. I will establish my covenant with him for his descendants after him. And then he must have wondered, How can this be if this covenant son is dead?
Extending his arm above the boy, Abraham lifted the knife, ready to plunge it into the chest of his precious son. God himself will provide, Abraham breathed one last time. Abraham! Abraham! The words from an emissary of the sovereign God literally shook the ground. Here I am, Abraham responded. His arm did not move. Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him.
At that moment, Abraham looked and saw a ram that had tangled its horns in a thicket. He walked to the bush, released the ram, and brought it back to the altar. Picking up his knife, Abraham cut the strap that had bound Isaac. The boy crawled down from the altar as his father laid the ram on the same spot where Isaac had just been lying. Pulling the sharp knife across the animal s throat, Abraham and Isaac watched as the ram s blood spilled down the wood and onto the ground.
Emotion welled up in Abraham s soul. God himself had provided. Once again God s messenger spoke in an audible voice. Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. All nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.
Once the sacrifice was finished, the final embers extinguished, Abraham and his son descended the mountain. Going down a hill is always easier than climbing up, but without the burden of the wood and the anguish of heart, the ease of the downward slope was even more wonderful. Abraham s obedience would be bountifully rewarded.
1. Genesis 22:1. What did it mean for Abraham to be tested by God? When have you ever felt that God might be testing you? How did you respond?
2. Genesis 17:15 16 and Genesis 22:2. 2. By commanding Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the son whom you love, God seemed to be both emphasizing the difficulty of what he was asking and contradicting the promise he had made to Abraham. When have you ever had difficulty believing God s promises? What in Abraham s story can help you believe and obey God regardless of your circumstances?
3. Genesis 22:6 8 and John 19:16 18. 3. Compare these passages. How many similarities can you find between the story of Abraham and Isaac and the story of God and Jesus?
4. Genesis 22:9 14, 16 18. 4. Put yourself in Abraham s place. Consider how difficult his obedience must have been. Then consider his relief and joy as Isaac is spared. How has God s provision affected your life?
5. Faith runs along the lines of God s promises. In other words, our faith will not be disappointed if we put it to work in connection with the promises God has clearly made. But God s promises often have conditions attached to them. How is that evident in Abraham s story?
INTERESTING FACT: Moriah signifies the place of provision of Yahweh. Though scholars have not been able to identify the exact location of the mountain where Abraham brought his son to be sacrificed, some ancient sources identify it with a site in Jerusalem, on which the Dome of the Rock (a Moslem mosque) currently sits. Interestingly, the Dome of the Rock, located on the Temple Mount, is just a few hundred yards from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally identified as the site of Jesus crucifixion.